Sev's common lineage

thalassocrat at nym.hush.com · 29 Jun 2008, 13:26 · from 2008-June.txt.gz

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From: thalassocrat at nym.hush.com (thalassocrat at nym.hush.com)
Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2008 23:26:17 +1000
Subject: (urth) Sev's common lineage
Message-ID: <20080629132618.F0D1C2003D at mailserver7.hushmail.com>

On Sun, 29 Jun 2008 22:56:59 +1000 Dave Tallman 
<davetallman at msn.com> wrote:
>Andrew wrote:
>> I want Sev to be related to Casdoe and Li'l Sev. "Casdoe" is so 
>> similar to "Dorcas", with the syllables reversed. Li'l Sev asks 
>Sev 
>> if he's his uncle, which I don't think makes a lot of sense 
>unless 
>> Li'l Sev does in fact have an Uncle Sev. If I'm right and Fechin 

>is 
>> Dorcas' father, then at the very least the families have known 
>each 
>> other for 70+ years.
>>   
>Usually Wolfe tries to provide a family resemblance between 
>related 
>characters. Fechin was "a tall, wild boy with red hair on his 
>hands, his 
>arms." Dorcas is gold-blonde, with no mention of hairiness. Sev 
>and his 
>potential sister Merryn aren't hairy either. Dorcas has artistic 
>talent, 
>but I don't think that's enough of a connection.
>
>You don't deal with b sharp's identification of Fechin with Father 

>Inire 
>and Rudesind.  One or both of those could be true, given their 
>monkey-like characteristics. But if so, chances are that the alien 

>could 
>not have children with human women.
>
>I'm not sold that "Are you my uncle?" means that little Sev knows 
>of an 
>uncle named Severian. He's just hoping for a relative to take care 

>of 
>him since he lost his family, in my view.

Fechin = Rudesind would mean Rudesind is lying about having been 
painted by him, and I don;t see any reason for Rudesind lying. 
Fechin = Inire IMO is frankly absurd.

On the resemblance argument Sev couldn't be the grandchild of 
Dorcas, so this argument has little weight. Red haired hairy great 
grandfathers have dark depilated great grandchildren, routinely. 
Pace Ultan's comments.

My Dorcas = child of Fechin story doesn't rely just on Dorcas' 
little artistic talents. The cloisonne trade of her father and 
brother carry more weight with me. In these kinds of socieies you 
don't make big money as a "great artist" without a patron and 
position. I think it's very plausible that Fechin's son might 
enlist his father's talents in a trade making ornanments for well-
off customers.

Anyway, I'm not claiming any of this as anything like an absolute 
certainty; I don't think that's possible. But it does make a lot 
more sense to me than any other theory I've read.

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